Fans find Oxegen’s frequency just right, Kenneth

PARTING music fans were blessed with some rare sunshine yesterday, during the last day of the Oxegen festival.

Rockers Rage against the Machine exploded onto the main stage for the grand finale of the three days of music, which saw nearly 160 bands entertain some 80,000 fans.

Amid the sun-drenched main arena the Blizzards put in a blistering performance. Their songs followed a weekend of top acts at the Punchestown venue.

The exodus starts today with most music lovers packing up tents and leaving the festival.

Saturday saw troubled singer Amy Winehouse woo fans with her eclectic voice, egged on by fans, many of whom were surprised that she bothered turning up.

Fans in the Pet Sounds tents were also treated to a version by Hot Chip of Nothing Compares To You, the classic Sinead O’Connor hit.

Michael Stipe also led REM on the main stage through a medley of favourites, including Losing My Religion and What’s the Frequency Kenneth?

Fans were agreed this year’s festival was better organised and less of a muckfest compared with previous ones, which saw concert-goers wade through rivers of mud.

Festival attendees were even spotted eating olives and cheese and crackers among dancers in the fields.

This is the first year Oxegen had three days of entertainment, spread over three days on seven stages.

A number of celebrities were spotted through the festivities, including Chris Pontius aka Party Boy from the television stunt programme Jackass, Slane Castle owner Lord Henry Mountcharles and his wife Iona as well as former Miss World Rosanna Davison and supermodel Helena Christensen.

Gardaí said “a significantly lower” number of arrests were carried out compared with last year.

However, there were more than 40 searches for drugs throughout the festival. By yesterday evening 35 arrests had been made for offences including possession of drugs, theft, assault as well as three drink-driving incidents.

Also, there were two investigations in connection with alleged sexual assaults, said to have occurred on Thursday and Friday.